Architectures Nomades is a photographic study of the heterogeneous kiosk structures run by homeless merchants and the tianguis- open-air markets that line the streets of Mexico City. Research for this project was initiated in the summer of 2011 as a result of a cultural exchange and residency program coordinated through Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and FONCA in Mexico.

From the beginning of time, in every society, vendors living on the streets have existed in different forms. Some knock on doors, some set up shop on the street but more importantly, the homeless merchant worked and continues to work imaginatively to offer goodwill and services. Today, new social structures and economies have begun to strip these people of their freedom. In Mexico, constructing a kiosk in the street is an important cultural activity. Vendors can be found almost everywhere and each day they take pride in setting up and taking down their little ephemeral shops. On the highways, in the streets, in areas where people congregate, one can admire these diverse structures that line the urban landscape. Also present are the markets that improvise by using vacant lots. These markets are called "tianguis". Tianguis are traditional Mexican markets that date back to the pre-Hispanic period. Their title originates from the word" Tiyānquiztli", a term from the Nahuat laguage meaning "market".

For this project, we roamed the streets and markets of the Districto Federal and collected images of these transient structures, which exhibit the ingenuity and creativity of these architects of daily life. Like the vendors who build, dismantle and rebuild, we have deconstructed our images, putting the emphasis on certain areas of the structures in order to create parallel universes that highlight this phenomenon from as much a social point of view as an aesthetic one.

NOORDERLICHT PHOTO FESTIVAL 2013 - 20 |20

Noorderlicht is an internationally oriented institute for photography that provides a podium for talented photographers from all corners of the earth. That was demonstra- ted in the much-praised festivals focusing on photography from the Arab world and Africa, among other events. To celebrate the twentieth edition, Noorderlicht asked twenty institutions from all around the world to make a presentation for themselves in 20|20. Those selected are all institutions to which Noorderlicht feels akin, because they, like Noorderlicht, make their own exhibitions and work in a narrative manner. Each institution is presenting the work of one photographer who is still unknown outside his or her own country, who exemplifies photographic developments in that region. The title refers not only to the 20th anniversary, but also to ‘20|20 vision’, the sharp gaze on the world that Noorderlicht and the other twenty institutions strive for.